Johannesburg - In a shocking twist to the tragic death of a 15-year-old girl who hanged herself in Emmerentia in Johannesburg, it appears as though her biological father also committed suicide several years ago.

It is believed that the girl filmed her suicide with a digital camera.

According to police, the girl - whose name has not been released - hanged herself between 14:30 and 16:00 in her room with a dog leash from a security gate leading to the garden.

Superintendent Chris Wilken said police are investigating the footage found on the camera in the room.

The girl had apparently told her mother that she was going to lie down in her room. Her stepfather was away at a cafe and when he came back, wanting to take something to her in her room, came upon the body.

No suicide note was found at the scene and it is unclear if the girl was suffering from depression.

A report will be compiled after the footage on the digital camera has been studied, Superintendent Wilken said.

An autopsy will be held and no more information will be released before then, he added.

The girl's father apparently took his own life two or three years ago.

A staff member of Greenlands High School, where the girl was a pupil, said many pupils had to receive counselling following news of her death.

"Many of them are struggling to accept it," the spokesperson said, adding that everything possible was done to assist them.

Johannesburg - A teenage girl from Johannesburg who filmed her own suicide last week apparently was involved with a pagan cult and had earlier mentioned her thoughts about suicide on an internet website.

The body of Aimee de la Harpe, 15, was found by her stepfather in their house on Wednesday afternoon. She had hanged herself from a security gate with a dog leash.

Superintendent Chris Wilken confirmed that police were investigating images of the scene in a camera. No suicide note was found.

Aimee regularly discussed her depression with visitors to a blog on the website www.benrik.co.uk.

She made her final posting about two days before her death.

On the blog, she told about her biological father's suicide a few years ago, her poor self-image and depression, her visits and strange obsession with cemeteries, as well as wild drinking parties with friends.

"My self-image is at a low since my grandmother told me that my friends had left me because I'm a drunk junkie whore," she wrote in her penultimate posting.

Suicide 'is not selfish'

She also wrote that she was wondering whether it was better to wait for a natural death, or to die before something bad happened to you.

"Is suicide brave? In some way, I suppose it is.

"It's the knowledge that you are entering a dark place and you are withdrawing yourself in advance from a situation you cannot handle.

"I have never considered it to be selfish," she wrote.

An informed source said on Sunday that Aimee had regular contact with a pagan cult on the internet.

She apparently also met them personally and allegedly also practised self-mutilation.

A friend, known only as Daniel, stated on the website on Friday that media reports revealing Aimee's postings were "sick".

"I'll soon ask that her account on the website be closed. How can we leave Aimee's blogs open to attacks like these?"

Dr Pixie du Toit, a forensic criminologist investigating teen suicides, said Aimee's reaching out to strangers on the internet and possibly also cults, indicated continuous rejection and "tremendous psychological pain".

"She probably felt that people close to her didn't realise her need and wanted to convey a clear message with her death (and the video recording of it).

School friends described Aimee to Du Toit as a loner, "artistic and eccentric".

Pretoria – Police have forwarded documents needed for issuing an international “red notice” for fugitive advocate Dirk Prinsloo to Interpol’s head office in Lyon, France.

Captain Ronnie Naidoo said police did not yet know where Prinsloo was.

Prinsloo allegedly jumped bail and stayed on in Russia instead of returning for his sex crimes trial in the Pretoria High Court.

There has been speculation that he might be in China.

Judge Mahomed Ismail issued a warrant for Prinsloo’s arrest last week, and provisionally declared his R20 000 bail forfeit after hearing that Prinsloo had told his lawyers by phone that “he was not returning from Russia”.

Prinsloo was arrested in 2002 with his then mistress Cezanne Visser -- nicknamed “Advocate Barbie” -- at their home in Centurion in Pretoria.

In recent months the State tried to stop Prinsloo from travelling to Russia, claiming he would flee, but was refused by different Pretoria High Court judges, who said there was nothing to support these suspicions.

Interpol’s website – www.interpol.int – explained that one of the agency’s most important functions was to help police in the 184 member countries share critical information using a system of international notices.

At the request of police in member states, the general secretariat in Lyon produces notices in all the organisation’s official languages.

Red notices are not international arrest warrants but they indicate that the persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions. On Friday the only three South Africans posted as wanted were Zhuohao Liu, 38, Bernardus Petrus Rens, 51, and Mvuleni John Tshoba, 41.

Pretoria - Police announced new and stringent security measures at the resumption of the Boeremag treason trial on Monday, after a two-week postponement following the escape of two of the accused.

Senior Superintendent Louis Bester, who is part of the police security team at court, told the remaining twenty accused, their legal representatives and those attending the case that no communication devices would be allowed in court.

No cellphone calls would be allowed from inside the Pretoria High Court. The accused would not be allowed to make any calls including from the public phones just outside the courtroom. Laptops inside the court with 3G cards, internet and e-mail may also not be used. People entering the courtroom would be searched.

The remaining accused have been moved to a new holding cells under the court.

"We have withdrawn some extraordinary privileges afforded to the accused," Director Sally de Beer told reporters outside the court.

This follows the escape of Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws, two of the accused in the case, almost two weeks ago.

[I finally had a chance to get a copy of the short documentary, "The Songs They sing". It is about the political songs the blacks in S.Africa sing.

I watched it a few times and listened carefully and now I'm happy that the translations are correct.

For example, I was able to pick up words which I knew the meaning of (like "blala" for example), and I could compare that with the text. And yes, they are singing about killing whites.

Then there are some songs sung in english, and there the words are clear. For example, one song goes "Kill the Boers, kill the racists".

The acting of the blacks, which goes along with the songs is also clear. They sing "i-soldier", and they pretend to march like soldiers, etc.

In another song, called "the axe song" (which has many variations), they sing about "chopping us down". They sing about chopping down "De Klerk" our former president.

In another song they sing in english "We hate you to death Botha" and "We hate you to death Malan".

The documentary is very short, only 12 minutes. I'd like to put it up on my site. I must just get it into an appropriate format, plus it will be a good one to do a photo story on.

One of the scenes is quite staggering... you see a crowd... a HUGE CROWD... just running down an avenue singing that chopping song. It is awe inspiring... imagine that same crowd coming to kill us... It is quite scary stuff.

One of the best moments ever, caught on film, shows Nelson Mandela. I have said in the past that the communists taught the blacks to talk like Liberal Democrats in English, but in the black languages to be honest and direct.

Well, in one scene, Nelson Mandela is at a funeral singing a song, the Xhosa words are, "kill the ama bhulu (whites)". Then, after this, a journalist asks him for his thoughts and he then talks about the desire for peace! It is brilliant, caught on tape. But just seconds before, he was standing there singing about killing the whites!!

I was suggesting to Cliff Saunders that I would have liked to see a full-length documentary done on these political songs which the blacks in S.Africa sing. Talk about HATE SPEECH... You've never seen anything like it. A massive crowd, just singing their hearts out, and the song is all about killing, chopping or destroying us whites. I think that alone would make for a fascinating topic which should be taken to the constitutional court of this country. Those songs should actually be banned. The problem is, 70% of this country's population sing these songs - even today! Jan]

Nelspruit - A man who was sentenced last year to a total of 154 years in jail was in court again on Monday, on charges of hijacking a man along the N4 highway.

Simon Ben Mnisi, 38, of Phola near White River pleaded guilty in Nelspruit regional court to charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances, as well as robbery. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Magistrate Albertus le Roux remarked that there was no chance of him ever being rehabilitated and the sentence would run concurrently with his earlier sentences.

Mnisi hijacked Elias Mlangeni, 62, of Witbank along the N4 in Nelspruit on November 2, 2002. Mlangeni was replacing a tyre when two men armed with pistols attacked him.

Mlangeni was blindfolded, put in the boot of his car and taken to Schoemanskloof where he was robbed of R2 500 and dumped on the roadside. Police later found the car in Mnisi's possession.

Mnisi committed most of his crimes along the N4.

29 charges 'fabrications'

Last year, the judge who convicted him in the High Court to a total of 154 years, said Mnisi had an "inherent propensity for evil".

Mnisi faced 34 charges, ranging from murder to theft. He initially pleaded guilty to only five of the charges, and those related to one hijacking in which the driver was killed.

All the other charges, he told the court, "are mere fabrications".

His girlfriend, Reginah Monareng, broke up with him when she took the stand, saying: "I cannot continue being a girlfriend of someone like this!".

His niece, Rose Mawelela, said she could not believe her uncle could have done the things he was accused of because it was he who made sure the family went to church.

'Watch me in action'

Mnisi's life of crime started in 1987, when he was 19 years old and broke into people's homes.

He claims to have found a "new life" in jail.

"I am about to be ordained as a pastor," he said before being led to the cells on Monday.

"My fellow inmates have all embraced me and the Lord as their guides. I aim to make a big difference in the lives of everybody around me.

"Come and see me in action in jail and you will see for yourself that I'm not boasting."

Cape Town - Police have arrested six Cape men for the possession of child pornography after many months of investigation and observation of their internet activities.

A police operation called "Project Doctor" launched in October last year, produced results in the past two months when the police arrested the men during raids at their houses in the northern and southern suburbs.

Captain Elliot Sinyangana said on Monday night that the latest arrests were made last week, but the police expected to arrest more suspects.

"I can't say how much pornographic material is involved, but it's a lot.

"I can't go into details about the nature of the investigation, because we suspect there are more people outside who do the same things and we want to catch them, too.

"I can say only that it wasn't a random operation; it was driven by information.

"The police continuously monitor internet crime and, in this case, we had information that put us on the men's trail.

"A special investigation team was established with experienced members of the family and child-violence team to manage the project," he said.

Laptop computer and hard drives

Sinyangana said the first suspect, a man of 32, was arrested in Rondebosch and police confiscated two computers at his house.

Afterwards, the police arrested a 52-year-old man in Simon's Town and confiscated his computer, too. The third suspect is a man of 50 from Fish Hoek.

In addition to a computer and pornographic photos of children, police also confiscated an unlicensed firearm at his house.

In Kuils River, they arrested a 34-year-old man and confiscated a laptop computer and hard drives.

The fifth and sixth suspects are 39 and 61 years old and are from Goodwood and Sybrand Park, respectively.

The man from Goodwood also had a large number of DVDs and has been charged with distributing them without a licence.

A bill awaiting the president's signature and another that has been tabled in parliament will make it easier from now on for law enforcers to monitor suspects' internet activities and e-mail electronically.

The American FBI investigated 11 Cape men in September last year in relation to the alleged possession of child pornography, after the men's credit-card numbers surfaced in the records of websites offering child pornography for sale.

Raids not linked to other cases

The police also arrested a well-known karate coach from Stilbaai in connection with child pornography.

His arrest has been linked with the child pornography case for which Allen Harmony and a woman were arrested on December 5 2005 on Riethuiskraal farm. Harmony later committed suicide while in custody.

Sinyangana said "Project Doctor" had not been related to the 11 men investigated by the FBI, nor the karate man.

The two men from Rondebosch and Sybrant Park were due to appear on Tuesday in Wynberg court for sexual offences. The others are due to appear in the same court on May 18, May 25, May 31 and June 6.